Power cut hits shoppers

Relevant offers

A 20-minute blackout disrupted pre-Christmas shopping in Richmond and affected thousands of homes.

Transpower spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson said the electricity outage, which occurred at 12.06pm, was due to a piece of equipment in the Stoke substation tripping. She said staff were quick to fix the problem and did not anticipate any further issues.

Network Tasman said the cut affected 5400 customers in the Richmond area, including the central business district. Another 2000 customers in the Appleby, Mapua, Mahana, Upper Moutere and Neudorf areas were also affected. TheEves valley mill and the MDF plant also lost supply.